What Saul Schubak did wrong in Finland

Saul Schubak, the National Coalition Party politician who said that ”inferior people” should not get child allowances, resigned Friday as vice president of the party’s youth wing. If there is a lesson to be learned from the Schubak scandal, it’s which group you insult.

If Schubak speaks of ”inferior people” and gets dumped by his party for his statement, why doesn’t the same happen when the Perussuomalaiset (PS) and its anti-immigration extremists get showered with votes in elections?

The answer to this very simple question is obvious: Don’t insult the wrong group. Schubak insulted whites while the PS near-constantly insults immigrants and visible minorities.

The moral of the Schubak scandal? If you are going to insult people in Finland, stay clear from white people especially if you have a Jewish background. Bashing immigrants and even visible minorities is, however, fine. You won’t lose face.

Schubak said in a statement that he ”did not mean to insult anyone” although that is exactly what he did.

The former National Coalition Party youth wing vice president said that politicians don’t take responsibility for what they say and do. Schubak, contrarily, does, which is why he is resigning, according to his words.

Pushing aside the melodramatics and political soap opera, Schubak is resigning because of what he said and to whom, which made his position in the party untenable.

The National Coalition Party youth wing has been on other occasions a political thorn in the conservative party’s side.

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I had the same thought in mind Enrique. Would there be this uproar as has been on Facebook for instance,if his comments were directed at non-whites? I guess most Finns identify themselves with the “inferior” background which led to the backlash. In other words, how dare he (even one of our own) insult “us”.
The incident most similar to this one is jussi alla-aho attacking immigrants and dismissing the ruling of Finland’s supreme court judges. He was given a pass by all politicians including the prime minister after being indicted for racism. No one asked him to resign. However, he was forced to do so when he directed his attack to Finland’s supreme court. What hypocrisy!!!

Hi Happy, I think this is one of the lessons we learned from Saul Schubak. Apart from making such a politically stupid comment on Facebook (remember what Mitt Romney said about 47% of USAmericans?), he has a non-Finnish name and is of Jewish background. That’s a no-no. You can’t speak of white Finns as “inferior” but you sure can talk about different immigrant groups in such a way and get away with it.

The incident most similar to this one is jussi alla-aho attacking immigrants and dismissing the ruling of Finland’s supreme court judges. He was given a pass by all politicians including the prime minister after being indicted for racism. No one asked him to resign. However, he was forced to do so when he directed his attack to Finland’s supreme court. What hypocrisy!!!

I don’t think criticising the Finnish system was much of a factor in that particular case. Most parties would not have wanted him as the chairman in the first place, but could not really make a fuss about it since he was elected following the usual conventions (for comparison, they won’t call lying “lying”, to follow the rules of the parliament).

Being sentenced by the court was not enough of a reason to force him to resign, as there are other representatives in important positions who have criminal sentences, so the other parties would have had trouble justifying why it would have been so more significant in his case. However, his choice of words provided a convenient excuse to get rid of him, like everyone but the PS had wanted all along.